By Joe Johnson
Athens-Clarke County police have closed the unsolved case of an Athens social worker who was shot to death three years ago at her home on Airport Road.
Natania Salah Jarrad, 30, worked for Advantage Behavioral Health Systems when she was killed by a gunshot wound to the head on June 17, 2018.
An autopsy at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's State Crime Lab was unable to determine if Jarrad’s death was a homicide, suicide or accidental, and police were unable to find evidence that the fatal wound was self-inflicted or caused by someone else.
According to police, the only person with Jarred when she died was her fiancé, James Morris Anthony III, with whom the victim lived and reported the shooting.
Anthony was questioned by police about Jarrad’s death and he told them it was a suicide, according to his attorney, Adam Cain.
“He gave a recorded statement, with me present, that it was a suicide,” the attorney told Classic City News last July. “My client has cooperated with the investigation and provided a statement he had nothing to do with her death. We stand by the fact it was a suicide.”
The decision to close the case on Jarrad’s death was made after Anthony died on July 20.
“In reference to the Jarrad death investigation, the autopsy ruled the manner of death as, undetermined,” said Lt. Shaun Barnett, ACCPD’s public information officer.
“No new evidence has been obtained in this case and with (Anthony's) death the investigation will be closed,” he said.